With three wins on the spin for Aston Villa as things began coming back together again for head coach Steven Gerrard, there were high hopes we could make it four on the trot as we headed to the taxpayer funded London Stadium to face David Moyes’ West Ham United side.
It was a very mixed opening 45 minutes with both sides having their moments on top, moments of utter boredom and it seemed each had forgotten the aim of the game was to score at times – however we did have a very good shout for a penalty that was predictably ignored.
Would the second half actually see anything worth typing about?
Probably the best chance of the game fell to Danny Ings and he really should’ve buried it – but he didn’t. West Ham then had a guilt-edged chance, but Emi Martinez pulled off a fantastic stop to deny them.
With the referee happy with forearm smashes from the hosts, they stepped up and eventually opened the scoring with 20 minutes remaining on the clock although there was more than a whiff of offside to it for me – and it didn’t look like we’d have an answer for it.
And we didn’t, another piece of woeful, sloppy play saw Declan Rice waltz through us and a few seconds later Pablo Fornals made it 2-0.
Leon Bailey and Emi Buendia combined for what should’ve been a fantastic equaliser, but the effort was well saved and a minute or so later Buendia pulled off a bit of magic in the box after nicking the ball and Jacob Ramsey finished well.
2-1 and six minutes of stoppage time…
No, our West Ham record continues for another season.
London Stadium
Premier League
13/03/2022 3:00 pm
Referee: Jarrod Gillett
| West Ham United | Aston Villa | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yarmolenko (70), Fornals (82) | J Ramsey (90) | ||||||
| Fabianski | Martinez | ||||||
| Johnson | Cash | ||||||
| Dawson | Chambers | ||||||
| Zouma | Mings | ||||||
| Cresswell | 57 | Digne | 10 | ||||
| Soucek | McGinn | ||||||
| Rice | Douglas Luiz | 79 | |||||
| Lanzini | J Ramsey | ||||||
| Fornals | Coutinho | ||||||
| Antonio | 52 | Ings | 69 | ||||
| Benrahma | 87 | Watkins | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Yarmolenko | 52 | Konsa | |||||
| Areola | Sanson | ||||||
| Noble | Buendia | 79 | |||||
| Diop | 87 | Traore | |||||
| Fredericks | 57 | Young | 10 | ||||
| Masuaku | Olsen | ||||||
| Kral | Bailey | 69 | |||||
| Oko-Flex | Carney Chukwuemeka | ||||||
| Perkins | Iroegbunam | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 11 | Goal attempts | 13 |
| 4 | On Target | 7 |
| 5 | Corners | 7 |
| 9 | Fouls | 3 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 48 | % | 52 |
so inconsistant, but maybe next season will see SG bring in genuine premier players, and not championship players doing their best, just a note regarding Chuckweameka, get rid if he wont sign, im not impressed, very slow too get around the pitch, nothing special.